Training

Over 2,500 clergy and lay leaders have been trained on topics such as managing buildings, raising funds, and community engagement through Partners' flagship training program, New Dollars/New Partners.

New Dollars/New Partners for Your Sacred Place

New Dollars/New Partners is an innovative training program offered by Partners, available to congregations with older or historic buildings. This training combines the best of the resources, techniques, and knowledge developed by Partners since 1989, and is the only one of its kind.Partners has developed a strong expertise on fundraising for older religious properties since its founding in 1989. For example, Partners’ Complete Guide to Capital Campaigns for Historic Churches and Synagogues, is considered the definitive book on the subject. Partners’ staff are joined during the year-long training program, of four day long workshops, by consultants with in-depth experience in specialized topics.

Congregations that typically participate in and benefit from the training have a sacred place older than 50 years, have capital needs beyond the current financial capability of the congregation, and also possess a desire to deepen their community connections and use their buildings more effectively. Each training course includes four leaders (senior clergy and lay leaders with responsibility for property, outreach, and finance/fundraising) from 8 to 12 congregations that want to find new ways to fund and support their older or historic buildings.

"Working with Partners has enabled us to look at what we do now and what might be possible in an entirely new way. It has been a great motivator and allowed us to think outside the box. Thank you for helping us stretch our vision of how we can use our sacred places for mission and ministry." Bellevue United Presbyterian Church

An evaluation of the effectiveness of New Dollars/New Partners for Your Sacred Place was conducted in 2005 by the TCC Group. 76% of the congregations participating in 2004 New Dollars/New Partners training responded to a written questionnaire and/or telephone interview. Congregations reported significant progress on New Dollars/New Partners' short-term outcomes achievable within a year. Leaders reported improved knowledge on how to make best use of sacred spaces, improved levels of vision within their congregations, and a higher level of congregational motivation to plan how to utilize their spaces.

Workshops

Partners often hosts innovative and dynamic workshops on the range of programs that we offer, compounding large amounts of key information into one-to-three hours sessions for individual congregations, groups of lay leaders, design professionals, and local community members.

Topics of past workshops include:

Understanding the Public and Economic Value of your Sacred Place

Overview of Capital Campaign

Community wide Fundraising

Rural Church Preservation

Adaptive use of Sacred Places

Sharing Space With Arts groups

For more information about training or workshops, please contact our Philadelphia office at (215) 567-3234 x.10, or via email at partners@sacredplaces.org.